After the meal, the Secretariat presented the first volume of the Prospective Study of International Policy in 1863; The End of Turmoil in China" has been delivered, and Richard is sipping the greasy tea while flipping through it......

The report starts with the current situation;

Earlier this year

On the 10th day of the first month of the first year of Tongzhi (1862), the Empress Dowager Cixi issued an edict in the name of Emperor Tongzhi, officially announcing the imperial court's decision to "borrow teachers to help suppress".

The so-called "borrowing teachers to help suppress" is to use the strong ships and cannons of foreigners to exterminate the long-haired bandits that have lasted for many years.

As early as the second year of Xianfeng (1852), when the Taiping army attacked southern Chu, some people proposed to ask foreigners to send "steamers into the river to help suppress", which was suspended due to the military parade of the governor of Liangjiang along the river.

In the following year, when the Taiping army came to Nanjing, Wu Jianzhang, the governor of Shanghai, begged for help from the Tang, British, and French consuls in Shanghai, and asked the British and Tang warships to sail into the Yangtze River to help the Qing army garrison Nanjing.

Then

The Tang Empire had just won the Tang-Mo War, and its own family had all kinds of troubles, so it never agreed.

After the Second Opium War, in September of the tenth year of Xianfeng, as soon as the "Beijing Treaty" was signed, the French envoy Ge Luo expressed it to Prince Gong Yixun; All the French ships and soldiers were willing to listen to the dispatch and help the Qing court to "attack and suppress the rebellion".

The Russian envoy Yin Gnachev also offered to "teach the Qing army to cast guns and cannons" and sent troops to suppress the Taiping army.

At that time, the Tang Kingdom was in the middle of the North American War, but it didn't have the time to deal with this side of the matter, and it was finally over.

In the 11th year of Xianfeng (1861), Britain also expressed its willingness to help the Qing court "quell the civil strife". In June of the same year, after winning the North American War, the Tang Empire's attitude finally relaxed, and it expressed its willingness to "provide appropriate assistance and restore peace".

In this regard, many powerful ministers in the Qing court expressed great appreciation. Yixun, Zeng Guofan, Xue Huan and others successively suggested to the imperial court to "borrow teachers to help suppress".

In November of the same year, the Taiping army conquered Ningbo and Hangzhou, and attacked Shanghai again in December, finally making the Qing court make the final decision to "borrow teachers to help suppress".

The Qing court, which had received the support of the foreign powers, quickly won victories on a series of battlefields, and fought "rebellion and retreat again and again, losing cities and land, and already unable to form an army!" ”

Li Hongzhang hired Tang instructors to train thousands of pikemen trained according to the new art of war, known as the "Huai Army", and led the troops to Anqing to merge with the former Hunan army Cheng Xueqi and Guo Songlin, with a total of about 7,000 people.

Soon after, Li Hongzhang led the Huai army from Anqing to Shanghai on a British steamer, and set up a large camp in the suburbs of Xinqiao, where he encircled and suppressed the Taiping army in Fengxian, Songjiang, and Qingpu with the British, French, and Tang intervention forces and the Huaer Foreign Rifle Corps.

It adopted the strategy of "suppressing and appeasing at the same time" to attack the southern Jiangsu region of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, step by step.

Li Hongzhang recruited the Taiping army guards in Changshu, Zhaowen, and Taicang, and together with the "Changsheng Army" captured Taicang, Kunshan and other places.

Subsequently, Suzhou and Wuxi were captured, Jiaxing, Zhejiang was captured in February, and Changzhou and Danyang in Jiangsu were captured in April, achieving a series of great victories.

After the fall of Tianjing in June, Li Hongzhang led the Huai army to cooperate with the Hunan army to capture Huzhou, Zhejiang, and then led the army to Anhui, Jiangxi, Fujian and other places to suppress the rest of the Taiping army.

In the process of suppressing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Li Hongzhang purchased a large number of foreign guns and artillery, hired foreign officers to equip and train the Huai army, and rapidly expanded to 60,000 or 70,000 people.

In the past two years, Li Hongzhang led the Huai army to suppress the eastern and western twisting armies in Shandong, Henan, Hubei, Jiangsu and Zhili, and the performance was extremely eye-catching.

In October, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Chen Decai's department was defeated by the Qing army monk Greenqin in Heishidu, Huoshan, Anhui Province, and his subordinates Ma Rong and more than 70,000 people surrendered to the enemy, Hu Wang Lan Chengchun was betrayed by a traitor and killed, Chen Decai committed suicide by poisoning, and the rest of the army was led by Zunwang Lai Wenguang and others to merge with the Twist Army, but the general trend has gone.

In 1862, after Li Hongzhang became the governor of Zhili, he successively sent Huai Army officers to study in the Tang Kingdom, and set up the Naval Master School and the Beiyang Military Academy in Tianjin to train Huai generals, making the Huai Army the first armed force with new equipment in China, and forming an important military force in the late Qing Dynasty.

Overall

Under the encirclement and suppression of Zeng Guofan, Zeng Guoquan, Zuo Zongtang, Li Hongzhang and other important officials of the Qing court, after the fall of Tianjing, the vigorous peasant uprising marked by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom came to an end, and the Qing court's decision to "borrow teachers to help suppress" further aggravated this process.

In Richard's view, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is not the master of the world at all, and it is better to end the peace of life as soon as possible than if the war continues.

Policy experts share a similar view in the outlook report.

The next 1863 and even the next 5~10 years will be a period of reorganizing the social order of Shenzhou and restoring most of the scars that have been beaten.

After this heavy blow, the foundation of the Qing court's rule in Shenzhou has been shaken.

All kinds of new trends of thought, new ideas, and the ideas of national self-confidence, self-improvement, and self-reliance have infiltrated this ancient continent along with the opened ports, and they will inevitably ferment and grow imperceptibly and form a new force for reforming society.

After reading it

Richard felt a heavy mood for no reason, which was why he was generally reluctant to read the report from Shenzhou.

Things over there are too complicated, and there are many taboo minefields, so if you accidentally touch your body, why bother?

Forget it, just focus on your own business.

Early the next morning

At dawn, a group of more than 30 heavy carriages with royal insignia galloped out of the Daming Palace, escorted by cuirassiers in bright armor, all the way north, and the streets along the way were heavily guarded.

More than three hours later

Oak Town

Compared with the port town of less than 10,000 people more than 10 years ago, the scope of Oak Town has expanded more than ten times, with more than 83,500 permanent residents.

The buildings in the town are mainly 2~3 floors, there are many English-style spire houses in the old neighborhood, the stone-paved streets are very old, and the salted fish are hung at the door of every house, and the air is full of rich and idyllic smell.

Despite the fact that the town is not very large, almost half of the residents of the town are family members of the Royal Navy, and the rest also work in the shipyard or docks, and generally live a relatively wealthy life.

Therefore, there are many two- to three-story detached villas here, and the women and children are also quite decently dressed, with ruddy and healthy complexions, and it is obvious that they are living a good life.

During the war, the Oak Bay Terminal was expanded and now has 4 10,000-ton berths and 8 5,000-ton berths, as well as several large supporting warehouse areas with a high capacity to unload people and cargo.

The long cement plank road stretches into the bay, and now it is empty and slightly lonely.

During the war

It is often filled with 10,000-ton migrant ships as large as hills, and it is here that countless mainland recruits first set foot on the North American continent, disembarking on this pier in Oak Bay.

From here, you can walk to the train station, a dozen kilometers away, and take the train to the Salt Lake City training base.

Now

The transportation of recruits from the mainland has long since stopped, and several migrant boats arrive every month, but they are all half-grown children.

On the dock of Oak Bay Harbor today, there is a huge steam ironclad warship with a full flag moored, and the muzzle of the black hole is pointed straight to the sky.

Compared with other ironclad warships on the Navy dock, the "Tornado"-class steam ironclad ship has a full load displacement of 4,980 tons, almost three times the size of the ironclad frigate, and the huge steel rivets exude an icy sheen and are filled with an indescribable sense of power.

At this time, the steam ironclad represents the highest level of warships in the world today.

The Royal Janissaries were on guard all around the docks, carpets, Royal Navy honor guards and a large group of high-ranking military officials were all waiting here, looking forward to it.

After 9:30, every few minutes

A group of Royal Praetorian Guard cavalry on white horses arrived, and then quickly began to stand guard, which made the atmosphere of the scene also solemn.

Everyone knows it in their hearts; His Majesty's motorcade is about to arrive.

"It's coming, it's coming, it's ...... Played! ”

When a large group of cavalry appeared at the end of the line of sight, the majestic and passionate music immediately sounded, and the military and political officials immediately stood on both sides of the red carpet, waiting for His Majesty's motorcade to arrive.

A group of more than 30 heavy carriages began to slow down early, and when they arrived at the dock, the sturdy horses were already drenched in sweat and stopped with heavy snorts.

"Salute, Your Majesty." The military generals and guard officers and soldiers who greeted them all saluted in unison.

His Majesty the Emperor and a group of attachés got down from the carriage, and when they saw the Duke of Pan Hengchen, the marshal of the navy, standing in the first place, they walked over with a smile and raised their hands to salute in return; "Pan Aiqing doesn't have to be polite, and the Qing family is free of courtesy."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

Among the high-ranking military and political officials who accompanied the greeting, there were also several noble ladies such as the duchess, who hurriedly got up and thanked them when they heard this.

Richard stood on the edge of the dock, carefully examining the armored cruiser "Tempest", which was a typical Tang Empire-style ironclad battleship, with a neat layout and an intangible industrial beauty.

There are two forward 203 mm guns in the bow and two 203 mm guns in the stern, and two thick chimneys standing side by side behind the amidship command tower.

Along one side of the hull, five Colt 7-inch 178mm rifled rear-loading guns were arranged, with a total of 10 guns on both sides, and the overall layout was strict and standardized, full of a sense of power in the Iron Age.

Such a battleship cost 287,000 Tang Yuan.

If the navy's plan to develop 7,800-ton "Zhenwei" ironclad ships is approved, the cost of each of them will be doubled, and tens of thousands of yuan will be lost for each sea training.

"Your Majesty, please move to the ship to inspect, and Wechen will answer your Majesty's questions at any time." Marshal Pan Hengchen came over with a smile on his face and asked in a low voice.

Richard had this in mind, so he nodded in agreement; "Lead the way."

"Wechen obeys."

When I boarded the battleship, I felt very different.

Different from the previous ironclad battleships of the Tang Empire, the "Hurricane" steam ironclad cruiser has a wide and large deck, so the ship layout is much more relaxed.

Embodied in the main and secondary batteries, each battery has a semi-independent iron armor enclosure, which can shield the shrapnel flying during naval battles, protect the crew members, and also block the waves that rush onto the deck, which is the accumulation of combat experience!

Standing on the deck, you can't see all kinds of messy high-pressure steam pipes, all of which are hidden under the deck, which can effectively prevent the shrapnel flying in the battle from damaging the steam pipes, resulting in the loss of the overall power of the ship, which also comes from the accumulation of valuable experience in actual combat.

Every bit of detail contains the summary and accumulation of naval warfare by the Tang Imperial Navy, and is fed back into the construction of the most advanced ironclad warships.

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